'Was it a first crack? Good question. I don't know. I hope not' says overall leader
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Simon Yates finishes stage 18 at the Giro d'Italia(Image credit: Getty Images)
Tom Dumoulin looks back for Simon Yates at the end of stage 18(Image credit: Getty Images)
Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) - stage 18 from Abbiategrasso to Prato Nevoso at the Giro d'Italia(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) at the start of stage 18 at the Giro d'Italia(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) sits in the field with his teammates(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) showed a first sign of weakness at the 2018 Giro d'Italia on Thursday, losing time to Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb), Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida) and Chris Froome (Team Sky) on the fast finish to Prato Nevoso.
He tried hard to paper over cracks in his defence of the maglia rosa, insisting it was just a bad day and that the multiple mountain stages to Bardonecchia and Cervinia suit him much more. However, Dumoulin is just 28 seconds down on the Briton and he got a real taste of blood after two-and-a-half weeks of suffering.
"Today is very different to the next few days," Yates said. "Today was one big effort in the final. Tomorrow there are many passes and longer climbs that suit me much more. This does not hurt my confidence. I'm much more confident about tomorrow and the next day than I was about today."
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Stephen is the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters, Shift Active Media, and CyclingWeekly, among other publications.
